How One Guy Overcame Body Image Issues When He Stopped Counting Calories

I'm a big advocate of a wholesome approach to fitness. I usually tell my clients to stop weighing themselves and focus on how they feel in their skin versus how they feel in their clothes. I often deal with people who, for the most part, are 80 percent there, so it's really about fine tuning and keeping their values and goals in check along the way.

I've seen so many people overtrain, stress about a cheat meal to the extent that they'll skip meals and count every calorie they consume until their fitness journey has become something dark and complicated. I always felt so distant from that train of thinking.

I’ve always had a great relationship with food, my body and mind. Until I didn’t.

It happened so fast at first I brushed it off as just having a bad day, then a bad work out, not eating enough, not eating clean enough. Finally, a month later I was in the thick of it. I wasn't happy with my body. I wasn’t happy with my performance, my esthetic and I felt like a sham! Here I am, physical trainer, and no matter what others saw I wasn't "built" enough, "fast" enough, "strong" enough TO ME!

I think it's important to start off honest. I was lucky enough to have a body that genetics was kind to. I grew up average height in school. I played sports. I never felt like I was a stranger in my body. For 15 years out of my 27, I've been active and have become accustomed to "training" my body on a daily basis. The last five years I've actually made it a career out of it. I'm the Master Instructor at Barry’s Bootcamp as well a NIKE NTC coach in New York City. I hold multiple certifications and strive to further my education daily.

I live for helping others and I truly enjoy being a catalyst, a shoulder for those who need it or just a soundboard for all of my clients. I've helped others not only achieve their physical goals but some personal ones as well.

But now, focusing on my own body, I had started to weighing myself everyday, checking my body fat, planning every detail of my next workout, counting every rep, every pound. It was obsessive. I was participating in a lifestyle that I’ve always coached to steer clear from.

When it comes to my personal life, I’m in the best relationship, I’ve ever had. I couldn’t love my job more and aside from the typical stressors of living in a high-paced city like New York, everything is great.

I think men, myself included, preserve these body image issues mostly affecting women. But as guys, we don’t talk about it enough although we are just as vulnerable to this as anyone. I’m thankful that I recognized this early but it was enough to empathize with other who are either still affected by it or have already come out on the other side because it can be debilitating.

I sat down and wrote six things I like about my body. Three of them were superficial and three of them were personal. I taped the notes on my bedroom mirror and I look at it every morning. I stopped counting reps and I completing the work to failure. I forced myself to take some group fitness classes that I normally wouldn’t do because it forced my to shut my mind off.

I picked up meditating again and reached out to a few close friends to confide into. I tried to regain my balance and in doing so, I feel back in love with fitness and with my body. You only get one. Treat it right. Love on it, respect it, push it, pick it back up and love on it some more. Movement is a gift and as that corny saying goes, “It’s not about the destination but the journey.”